MILITARY PRE-EMINENCE OF THE OLD SPANISH TRAIL SYSTEM
No highway in the New World and probably no highway its length in the whole world has so many military, naval and air establishments as the Old Spanish Trail. There is no such thing as a “military highway” in the United States but one of the keystones to the future development of the Old Spanish Trail system is this background of military importance.
The nearest to a military highway in the United States was the proposed National Highway from Washington to St. Louis started in 1820. When the railroad era began the national highway movement was stifled. Now, a century later, a sudden realization has come of the value of continental highways.
Compilation xis of January 1, 1923. Jacksonville—U. S. rifle range; also for tho State of Florida.
Tampa—Headquarters coast defense. Ft.
Dade; Ft. De Soto.
Pensacola—Important naval base. Naval air base. Coast defense. Ft. Barrancas; Ft. McRae; Ft. Pickens.
Mobile—Coast defense. Ft. Morgan; Ft. •Gaines.
New Orleans—Great supply depots. Jackson Barracks; Ft. Jackson; Ft. St. Philip. Galveston—Coast defense. Ft. Crockett; Ft.
San Jacinto; Ft. Travis.
Houston—Ellington Flying Field. Important Air Service Station; pursuit group; aero squadrons; signal corps; bombing school and various detachments.
San Antonio—Greatest military base in the United States. All arms of the service with extensive military supplies and properties. Ft. Sam Houston, permanent army post extensively equipped, lieadq. 8th Corps Area, headq. famous Second Division; Kelly Flying Fields Nos. 1 and 2; Brooks Field, school for balloons and airplanes; Camp Normoyle, motor repair
shops; San Antonio Arsenal; Quartermaster Depots; Base Hospitals; Camp Bullis, target practice; Camp Stanley, field artillery target range; 90th Division, organized reserve headquarters—the 90th is another noted World War Division; Non-divisional organized headquarters.
Brownsville—Cavalry; hospital; motor transport; signal batallion, etc.
Laredo—Ft. McIntosh. Cavalry headquarter* with detachments.
Brackettville—Ft. Clark. Cavalry; hospital pack train; agricultural and horticultural school.
Eagle Pass—Camp headquarter*. Cavalry and service detachments.
Del Rio—Camp headquarters. Cavalry and service detachments.
Marfa—Cavalry; air service; motor transport ; pack train and service detachments.
El Paso—Important borderland base. Fort Bliss, general military headquarters; Camp Owen Bicme; air service; William Beaumont General Hospital.
Columbus—Infantry camp with service detachments.
Douglas—Cavalry brigade; pack train and other detachments.
Fort Huachuca—Cavalry; infantry; pack train and detachments.
Nogales—Camp Stephen D. Little. Infantry; pack train and other detachments.
Tucson—Military rifle range.
San Diego—Ft. Rosencrans. Headq. coast defense detachments. Rockwell Field, army flying; North Island; naval flying field.
Los Angeles—Ft. MacArthur. Headq. coast defense, with detachments; Ross Field at Arcadia, army balloon school; March Field at Riverside, army flying.
TOURIST CAMP CONVENIENCES
Provision should be made for:—
Water.
Cooking. Install camp grates. Provide cooking ovens and wood. Gas and quarter meters are often provided.
Toilet facilities.
Bathing pool if possible, or shower baths.
Incinerator for burning garbage and trash.
Tables and benches. Lights.
A telephone or other facilities for getting supplies arc desirable.
A brush or vine covered arbor with comfortable scats will provide shade and comforts even tho you have a good grove. Lights under the arbor are an added convenience. At night men like a place to gather and talk. The women will have mending to do and the children to look after.
A pavilion or lodge is also desirable as a shelter in time of storm and for other conveniences or pleasures.
Cleanliness and Sanitation Important.
By all means keep sanitation, neatness and cleanliness well in hand. Travelers are quick to condemn the lack of these and to pass the word along to keep away from unsanitary or unclean camps.
Don’t have open privies if it can be avoided. They are a menace. Where nothing better is possible, lime or some other disinfectant should be provided to keep them as sanitary as possible.
Paint your woodwork white. It is a constant suggestion to cleanliness.
Don’t have advertising around your camp. It cheapens the place.
Communities that are providing real camps arc amply repaid. Build up goodwill and the numbers that come will increase, and when they go they will scatter words of friendliness.
Tourist Dividends.
It should be remembered that the auto traveler is a good cash customer for all sorts of supplies or service. These tourists add population and trade to the community the same as a house rented and occupied. The traveler in his car is also an interesting visitor, and his coming and going like “ships that pass in the night” give the community a delightful touch.
Camps harboring two or three hundred visitors nightly arc not unusual. In fact along the Old Spanish Trail such camps exist, and others arc rapidly developing.
Vacation Camps.
Another kind of camp is possible in places of unusual attraction. Little cabins may be built and furnished to be rented at $1.50 a day
and upward, and a central lodge established where meals can be served. This permits people to get in their cars or travel by train and go to some place and “rough it” at small expense. There are many people who want to get away from the city for a few weeks and enjoy the w’oods and streams. Vacation camps should be financially sclfsustaining.
Combination Camps.
Some places arc combinations of Tourist Camps, Vacation Camps and of Amusement Parks. Where such camps or parks arc on an important trunkline, auto parties flow in from a wide territory. The attractions depend in part on the natural opportunities for entertainment and relaxation and on the conveniences provided. At Lands Park, in Texas, auto parties are so numerous that special parking grounds are provided with traffic officers in charge. More than 2,000 parked cars have frequently been counted Sundays and weekdays. There is a swimming pool fitted for all sorts of sport, also bath houses and lock boxes promenades, benches, pavilions, childrens’ playgrounds, dance floor, tents, tent floors for parties with their own equipment, cabins, sleeping rooms, boats, canoes, restaurant, drinks, etc. Landa Park attracts and cares for the tourist, the week-end party, or the pleasure seeker of a day or evening.
Classes of Campers.
The foregoing are simply for suggestion. Experience will teach many things. The basic thoughts to keep in mind arc:—(1) There is a class of wanderers who arc living largely in the public camps; (2) There is a class of well-to-do auto owners who are off for a trip with the family or on a week-end jaunt, and they desire nice surroundings and companionship; (3) There is a large mass of men and women who have two or three weeks of vacation annually, and who want to spend that vacation in the country, but they must have locations where they can rent their sleeping accommodations and be free of cooking problems, and have opportunities for sport, relaxation and entertainment; (4) There is that ever-increasing interstate and transcontinental auto traveler who is an asset to every community he visits.
Wherever these people find nice facilities for their comfort the word is continually passed along and that camp grows in popularity.
A Suggestion:
Gather together the people of your community who have toured and seen camps elsewhere. Many excellent ideas will come from such a meeting.